Quick Answer — TradeDay Banned Countries — Quick Facts
- • Roughly 80 countries on the restricted list — covers most of Africa, sanctioned states, large parts of Southeast Asia, several EU and Balkan markets, plus a handful of Caribbean and Pacific territories.
- • Canada is conditional — only Ontario residents may sign up, the rest of the country is excluded.
- • VPN, VPS, and proxy use to mask location is explicitly prohibited — flagged accounts are offboarded with profits confiscated.
- • The list is driven by AML, FATF, US export controls, and the compliance cost of serving low-volume markets, not by who can or can't trade futures.
- • Legal workaround is moving residency and updating KYC documents — not technical masking.
Why you can trust this: I started trading TradeDay in December 2024, traded multiple accounts, and pulled around $14,000 in cumulative payouts before stepping off the platform. I'm currently not active on TradeDay — which actually puts me in a clearer position to write about it than someone with a live account they're trying to protect. Strengths: simplest rulebook in futures-prop, day-one payouts after the buffer clears, three drawdown variants so you can pick the one that fits your style. Weaknesses: subscription pricing rather than one-off challenge fees, the consistency rule on evaluation surprises traders who weren't expecting it, copy-trading restrictions between Funded Sim and Funded Live. Full breakdown in the complete TradeDay review. Verify everything at the TradeDay Help Center, or sign up at TradeDay with code SAVE30 for 30% off plus no activation fee.
# TradeDay Banned Countries 2026: The Full Restricted List
TradeDay restricts roughly 80 countries from signing up. The list isn't arbitrary — it tracks anti-money-laundering rules, US export-control overlap, sanctioned-state regimes, and the compliance cost of serving small markets. The Help Center maintains the canonical version and updates as conditions change. This guide walks the full list verbatim, groups it by region so you can scan it quickly, explains the three regulatory drivers behind it, and covers the one legal workaround (moving residency) and the prohibited workaround (VPN masking) that catches traders at KYC.
If you're not on the list, you can sign up. TradeDay verifies residency through standard KYC at funded transition, so what matters is where you actually live, not where your IP address sits at the moment of signup.
The Full Restricted Country List
The list below is the Help Center's complete restricted set as of April 2026. Some entries are sub-national (Crimea Region of Ukraine, for example) and some bundle related territories ("Balkans" in addition to specific Balkan countries appears on the list, which is how the Help Center words it). Where the Help Center lists a country, it's repeated here verbatim.
| Region | Countries restricted |
|---|---|
| Africa — North & Sahel | Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Sudan/Darfur, Tunisia |
| Africa — West & Central | Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal |
| Africa — East & Horn | Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda |
| Africa — Southern | Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
| Middle East & MENA | Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen |
| Europe — Balkans & Eastern | Albania, Balkans, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Crimea Region of Ukraine, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine |
| Europe — Other | Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Monaco |
| Asia — South & Central | Afghanistan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka |
| Asia — Southeast | Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Vietnam |
| Asia — East | DPRK (North Korea) |
| Latin America & Caribbean | Barbados, Cuba, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela |
| US territories & Pacific | Guam, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands |
| Other Caribbean & offshore | British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands |
| Sanctions list | Magnitsky |
The "Magnitsky" entry refers to individuals and entities listed under the US Magnitsky Act, not a country — TradeDay carries it on the same list because compliance-wise it sits in the same bucket as the country sanctions. The "Balkans" entry is broader than the named Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) and effectively closes any gap left by the named-country list.
The Conditional: Canada Outside Ontario
Canada is the one geography where the restriction is sub-national. Ontario is permitted. Every other province and territory — Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon — is excluded.
The reason is provincial securities regulation. Canadian financial regulation runs through provincial securities commissions rather than a single national body. TradeDay's compliance setup aligns with the Ontario Securities Commission's framework, which is what permits Ontario sign-ups. Adding a second province requires a separate compliance review and registration; the cost-benefit hasn't justified it for the other provinces yet.
For Ontario residents specifically: standard KYC documents work — government ID with an Ontario address, proof of residency through utility bill or bank statement, and the normal onboarding flow goes through. For non-Ontario Canadians, the only legal path is establishing Ontario residency (real residency, not a mailing address) before signing up.
VPN, VPS, and Location Masking — Forbidden
TradeDay's prohibited practices list includes "using VPN, VPS, or proxy services to mask location to bypass country restrictions." The Help Center treats this as a deliberate compliance breach rather than an honest mistake. Consequences:
- Account offboarding — flagged accounts are closed.
- Profit confiscation — any pending withdrawal or accumulated funded balance is forfeited.
- No reinstatement — flagged accounts cannot re-sign-up under the same identity.
The detection mechanism is layered. The platform monitors IP and connection metadata during trading, but the conclusive catch happens at funded transition during KYC. To convert a Funded Sim balance to a Funded Live account and request payout, you have to verify identity and residency through documents — government ID, utility bill, bank statement showing your address. A trader who signed up from a permitted country using a VPN but lives in a restricted country can't produce verification documents from the permitted country, and the mismatch ends the relationship.
This is genuinely different from temporary travel. If you live in Germany and visit Indonesia for two weeks, your residency is still Germany. Your KYC documents show Germany. You're a German trader who happens to be online from Indonesia for a session. That's not what the prohibition targets — it targets traders whose actual residence is restricted but who try to mask that residence through technical means.
For the full prohibited-practices list with detail on each item, see TradeDay's prohibited practices article.
Why Are So Many Countries Restricted?
Three drivers explain the bulk of the list. Most countries on the list trip more than one driver, which is why the list is as long as it is.
Driver 1: AML and Counter-Terrorism Finance
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) maintains two lists that drive prop-firm compliance:
- High-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action — currently Iran, DPRK (North Korea), Myanmar. These are countries where FATF directly recommends counter-measures.
- Jurisdictions under increased monitoring — a longer rotating list of countries with strategic AML deficiencies. The list rotates every few months as countries either remediate or get added.
Prop firms working with US clearing relationships inherit FATF compliance through their banking and brokerage partners. A US-cleared futures prop can't realistically onboard traders from FATF call-for-action jurisdictions because the firm's correspondent banking relationships would refuse the transactions. This explains the inclusion of Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, and most of the FATF-monitored list (which historically has included countries like Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan, Yemen, Syria).
Driver 2: US Export Controls and Sanctions
OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) maintains the US sanctions regime. Comprehensive sanctions cover Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea/Sevastopol, Donetsk/Luhansk regions of Ukraine, and (at the time of writing) significant portions of Russia and Belarus. Sectoral sanctions cover specific industries or individuals (the Magnitsky list, for example).
US-domiciled prop firms can't onboard from comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions full stop. The legal exposure isn't worth any volume those markets would generate. This explains Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Russia, and Belarus on the list.
Driver 3: Compliance Cost vs Market Size
The third driver is economics. Adding a country to the permitted list isn't free — it requires verification rails for that country's ID documents, payout infrastructure that works for that country's banking system, dispute resolution that handles that country's legal framework, and ongoing monitoring of that country's compliance status. For small markets, the cost of adding the country exceeds the trading volume the country would produce.
This explains a lot of the list that doesn't fit cleanly into FATF or OFAC categories: small Caribbean territories (Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago), Pacific islands (Papua New Guinea, Guam), small EU markets (Malta, Iceland, Slovenia), and African countries that aren't on FATF lists but where verification infrastructure isn't built out (Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa).
The compliance-cost driver is the most fluid. As infrastructure builds out — or as TradeDay's compliance partners add coverage — countries can move from restricted to permitted. The FATF and OFAC drivers are stickier because they depend on geopolitical conditions outside any prop firm's control.
Region-by-Region Summary
Africa
The most heavily restricted region. Roughly half the African continent is on TradeDay's list, including most of West Africa, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and Southern Africa (including South Africa itself). Permitted African countries include Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, and a handful of others not on the restricted list. The driver is a mix: FATF monitoring covers much of the Sahel and Horn, US sanctions touch Sudan and historically Zimbabwe, and compliance-cost-driven exclusion covers the rest.
For African traders specifically, the legal workaround is establishing residency in a permitted neighboring country. UAE, Mauritius (interesting — Mauritius is on the restricted list but its neighbor relationships aren't), and Egypt are common destinations.
Middle East & MENA
The MENA region is split. Permitted: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Israel, Egypt, Turkey. Restricted: Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan. The split tracks closely with US foreign policy — the restricted list maps to either active sanctions (Iran, Syria) or post-Arab Spring instability (Libya, Yemen, Syria).
Europe
Most of the EU and Western Europe is permitted. The restricted list includes the Balkans (broadly), Russia, Belarus, Ukraine (with Crimea explicitly called out), several smaller EU members (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Malta), and Iceland. Switzerland, the UK, and most EEA-member states without restriction are fine.
The Russia-Ukraine bloc is sanctions-driven. The Balkan inclusion is a mix of FATF monitoring (Albania has historically been on the list) and compliance-cost rationale for smaller markets. Romania and Bulgaria's inclusion is unusual — both are EU members in good standing, but TradeDay's specific compliance setup excludes them.
Asia
Southeast Asia is heavily restricted: Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Afghanistan. Permitted Asian markets include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India. China is not on the restricted list as published, but practical issues (capital controls, payout rails) make Chinese sign-ups uncommon.
The Southeast Asian restrictions are mostly compliance-cost and FATF-driven. Myanmar specifically is FATF call-for-action. Pakistan has been on FATF monitoring lists historically. Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Lao PDR are compliance-cost-driven exclusions.
Latin America & Caribbean
Permitted: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica. Restricted: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Panama, Puerto Rico (US territory), and the British/US Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands.
Cuba and Venezuela are sanctions-driven. Nicaragua has been under sectoral sanctions. The Caribbean territories are mostly compliance-cost driven. Panama's inclusion likely tracks historical FATF monitoring around offshore-finance concerns.
What's a Legal Workaround?
There is exactly one. Establish residency in a permitted country.
This is meaningfully different from VPN masking. Establishing residency means actually moving — getting a real address (not a mail-forwarding service), real residency documentation, real bank presence, and a real connection to the new country. Standard documents that work at TradeDay KYC:
- Government-issued ID with the new address (national ID card, residence permit, driver's license depending on country)
- Utility bill or rental agreement in your name
- Bank statement from a bank in the new country showing your address
- Tax residency documentation if the country issues it
Common destinations for traders moving residency for prop-trading reasons: UAE (no tax, easy residency through company formation), Cyprus (EU residency, established expat infrastructure), Portugal (NHR program historically, tax considerations), Georgia (territorial taxation, fast residency), Malaysia (MM2H program). Each has its own residency requirements and tax implications that go beyond prop trading — moving residency for the sole purpose of TradeDay access is a poor cost-benefit; moving residency as part of a broader life or tax decision that incidentally permits TradeDay is the realistic path.
Once residency is established and documents are in your new country's name, you sign up using the new address. KYC verification goes through normally because the documents support the address you provided.
What's NOT a Workaround
To repeat clearly: VPN, VPS, proxy, mailing-address services that aren't actual residency, fake utility bills, or any other technical or documentary masking. TradeDay's KYC team has seen all the variations. The mismatch surfaces at funded transition and ends the relationship with profit forfeiture.
The other thing that's not a workaround: signing up under a friend or family member's name in a permitted country. KYC requires the person trading to be the person on the account. A founded relationship between sign-up identity and trading identity that diverge is treated as identity fraud, with the same offboarding-and-confiscation outcome plus the legal exposure on both sides.
Eligibility Beyond Country
Country isn't the only eligibility filter. TradeDay also requires:
- 18 or older
- Government-issued ID for KYC
- A payment method that works (most major credit cards, some debit cards, some crypto rails — varies by country)
- Single account per trader (not per email — TradeDay tracks across emails)
- No active Funded Live account when purchasing additional sign-ups
The full eligibility breakdown is in TradeDay eligibility requirements.
How the List Changes
The Help Center is the canonical reference and updates without notice. Three patterns drive changes:
- Sanctions adjustments. When OFAC or the EU adds or removes a country from the sanctions list, TradeDay's list typically updates within days.
- FATF list changes. FATF publishes updates roughly every four months. Countries that get added to the call-for-action or increased-monitoring list are typically added; countries removed from monitoring may be removed from TradeDay's list with some lag.
- Compliance-cost reviews. Less frequent — when TradeDay's compliance partners add new country coverage (verification, payout rails), the cost-benefit can flip and previously-restricted markets become permitted.
If you're sitting on a country that's currently restricted and considering signing up, the honest answer is: check the Help Center the day you sign up. The list isn't stable enough to bookmark.
The bottom line
TradeDay's roughly 80-country restricted list looks long but is structurally explicable: AML and FATF compliance, US export controls, and compliance-cost rationale for low-volume markets. Most of the list maps to one of those three drivers, often more than one stacked together. The Canada-Ontario conditional is the one sub-national exception, driven by provincial securities regulation rather than country-level concerns.
The legal workaround is moving residency to a permitted country — actually moving, with real documentation. The illegal workaround is VPN or location masking, which TradeDay treats as a prohibited practice with offboarding and profit forfeiture as the consequence. KYC at funded transition catches the mismatch even when in-platform monitoring doesn't.
For where the prohibited-practices list sits in the broader rulebook, see TradeDay rules 2026 and TradeDay's prohibited practices article. For the eligibility requirements that apply once you're in a permitted country, TradeDay eligibility requirements covers age, KYC, payment, and account-count rules. For the post-evaluation payout flow that triggers the residency verification, TradeDay payout policy walks the buffer-zone, profit-split tiers, and processing windows. The full TradeDay rulebook with the maximum drawdown rule, 30% consistency, and news-trading lockout is in TradeDay rules 2026, and the firm-vs-firm comparison most readers ask for is TradeDay vs Lucid Trading.